Just Clemson Being Clemson

Oh, Clemson. What can be said? The Tigers captured the essence of the Tommy Bowden era in one 60-minute sorry episode yesterday.

As Bowden said best: “We self-imploded.”

Forget for a moment that the team “did not show up” for its season opening game against Alabama, a matchup that would be quite hard not to get fired up for. Just consider how thoroughly the Tigers were dominating Maryland in the first half.

In the first half, Maryland could not get the ball to Darrius Heyward-Bey. It could not run the ball with Da’Rel Scott. And the Tigers could move the ball at will with James Davis and C.J. Spiller. The crowd was into it, and the only question for Maryland seemed to regard the margin of eventual defeat.

Criticism of Bowden was at a fever pitch before the loss. Now it is at another level entirely.

“The biggest thing we did was self-destruct,” Clemson defensive end Ricky Sapp said. “We played well in the first two quarters, but we couldn’t finish the job. We knew they had some trick plays coming into the game; they just converted.”

Spiller said: “They started bringing guys down that we couldn’t block. We had a bust on one of our reverses that could have been a touchdown. We just have to correct our mistakes and get ready for Wake Forest. We had a bump in the road that we have got to get corrected before we go to Wake Forest.”

Maryland played well in the second half for the most part, no question. How much of the result to you put on Clemson’s shoulders for simply imploding in a game it had wrapped up?

I believe on Clemson's 1st drive, they ran the ball all the way down to the 5 yard line. Then on 3rd down they tried a silly pass in the flat. Why? Settled for a field goal and kept Terps in the game with a couple of fumbles. I give credit to Terps for big win but Clemson, under Bowden, does have a way of losing when they shouldn't.